Missouri’s Shelton Wins Co-Angler Division

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (Feb. 23, 2026) – Boater Cody Miller of Shell Knob, Missouri, caught a total of five bass weighing 19 pounds, 7 ounces, to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake of the Ozarks Presented by Suzuki Marine. The tournament was the first of five events of the season for the BFL Ozark Division. Miller earned $3,340 for his victory.

“I went out without a game plan,” Miller said. “I haven’t been on Lake of the Ozarks since September. I didn’t prefish, I just drove up the morning of the tournament.

“I started out without my (Garmin) LiveScope for the first hour and caught a 4-pounder, a 3-pounder and another keeper,” Miller went on to say. “Once the sun got up a little bit and my line stopped freezing to my eyelets, I started my forward-facing sonar period and pushed my weight up to 17 or 18 pounds.”

Miller stayed in the Gravois Arm area and said he targeted brush with his electronics, because he could see the bass holding near the brush. Once Miller’s forward-facing sonar period expired, he began fishing windy points he knew featured chunk rock. There he caught his biggest bass of the day and culled up one last time to have his final weight.

Miller said he threw a Megabass 110+1 jerkbait when he wasn’t using LiveScope, and when he was using LiveScope he added an Alabama rig to the jerkbait presentation.

“I didn’t have any expectations going into this, to be honest,” Miller said. “I didn’t really think I would catch them before or after the LiveScope period, because that’s what I really like to do.

“I was pretty shocked to win,” Miller added. “Out of all the tournaments I thought I’d have shot at, this was definitely not one of them. This win was pretty random, but pretty awesome.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Cody Miller, Shell Knob, Mo., five bass, 19-7, $3,340
2nd:      Ronnie Dobbs, Shell Knob, Mo., five bass, 18-4, $1,680
3rd:       Dennis Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., five bass, 17-2, $1,650 (includes $500 Phoenix bonus)
4th:        Tyler Bower, Fenton, Mo., five bass, 16-4, $680
5th:        Randy Doman, Jefferson City, Mo., five bass, 16-1, $600
6th:        Darrin Marcure, Long Grove, Iowa, five bass, 15-15, $520
7th:        Kyle Kitts, Joplin, Mo., five bass, 15-10, $490
7th:        Justin Luetkemeyer, Lake Ozark, Mo., five bass, 15-10, $490
9th:        Lance Williams, Billings, Mo., five bass, 15-7, $460
10th:     Bradley Rumfelt, Lebanon, Mo., five bass, 14-11, $430

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Dennis Berhorst of Holts Summit, Missouri, earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award after landing a 7-pound, 9-ounce bass worth $200.

Jarod Shelton of Centralia, Missouri, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,670 Saturday after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 10 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Jarod Shelton, Centralia, Mo., three bass, 10-5, $1,670
2nd:      Thad Hewitt, Delaware, Okla., three bass, 9-13, $840
3rd:       Kirk Short, Saint Clair, Mo., three bass, 9-12, $425
4th:        Dave Bess, Oakville, Mo., three bass, 9-3, $340
5th:        Brett Krassinger, Byrnes Mill, Mo., three bass, 9-1, $300
6th:        Winston Moulder, Blue Springs, Mo., two bass, 8-6, $255
6th:        Gary Huber, Saint Charles, Mo., three bass, 8-6, $255
8th:        Jeff Moss, Oronogo, Mo., three bass, 8-5, $340
9th:        Tyler Williams, Farmington, Mo., three bass, 8-3, $230
10th:     Caleb Welch, Springfield, Mo., three bass, 8-1, $215

Brian Davis of Bethalto, Illinois, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 5-pound, 2-ounce bass worth $100.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the division based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 22-24 BFL Regional tournament on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. Boaters will fish for a top award of a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The 2026 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2026 BFL All-American will take place May 28-30, at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, and is hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular BFL updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF5’s social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.